Haruto

So much for quitting VK and the music scene, I knew he was just trying to be edgy. I wonder if Sho's tired of all of that or if Akane didn't even consider him for this session.

Honestly, as sad as this is, this is Akane we're talking about. He's known to be impulsive and moody and tweets whatever is on his mind. One day he will rage about the VK scene, the next day he might want to go on stage again. Also what @nekkichisaid – he's probably sulking and has too much time on his hands to be upset over small things. Maybe they'll do something out of VK then, not as D.I.D, not this year or not the next. Or maybe that's it. Just saying that Akane himself isn't really a reliable source for definite decisions... (And when Tohma left D.I.D. they also were super dramatic about 'real life duties' and 'forced to quit' and now he's in a new band. Even though the project is rather lowkey, you can see how quick factors can change if there's a will. D.I.D. was a trainwreck at the end though, I wouldn't sacrifice my chances in other jobs/private life either for these ruins of a once brilliant band, so there clearly was no will. So can't really blame Tohma. But Akane might change his mind as well.)

Was about to say that the band name sounds oddly familiar and wondered if a band with that name existed before.... Then realized it's a city in Pokémon Silver/Gold. Azalea Town. I'll show myself out. (No, I have nothing relevant to say about the band at all... )

Yepp, I think that was the name the girl mentioned! They had some member changes though, according to her.

Definitely not Juka, not even close. A very young band, barely any stage experience (they kept walking into each other). The vocalist is very petite, but has a nice voice.

So I just saw them live and frankly I have no idea who they are. 😂 We asked a girl who was in front and she said they're a session band from Osaka that now turned official, she couldn't name any previous projects of the members. So I guess no familiar old faces here unless you're into super indie guys. 😂

So who's taking bets on the members? Somehow I feel like I end up not knowing any of them –– but dude on the far right reminds me of Shiki (Cardia, figallo, DI3SIRAE), so I kept also thinking of L, DI3SIRAE's vocalist back then. Another idea is Hinata and ex. llll-Ligro- members. They currently have this project going on, but they tweeted that there will be announcements from the members – before MEIDARA's first official live. Actually, I have no clue or proof whatsoever, but my best friend and I have been on this all night, playing Sherlock Holmes is fun!

This sounds really promising... They're playing on March 17, I might go and check them out!

I have always been very picky about my bands and now that all of my favorites disbanded over the last two years, Visual Kei just feels dead to me. If I don't like the vocalist's voice, I can't get into the music. And while there are still some bands I find aesthetically interesting, like the art kei folks, their music isn't my thing at all. All of my friends go crazy about SAVAGE, DADAROMA, MEJIBRAY, MORRIGAN and to me, they all sound awful and I'm getting tired of seeing these same overhyped faces retweeted onto my timelines, so much that I developed a strong dislike, especially against Aryu and his pretentious instagram-Tzk-fanboy life. I actually don't want to lose touch to the scene, I've been a part of this for over 10 years, but I'll be in Japan in a few weeks and not a single concert show but one sounds appealing to me. I'm going to see Gazette's anniversary live for the sake of old times. I had tickets for lynch., then Akinori happened, so that leaves me with one show to attend. In 2012, I was at 16 different concerts. These bands all disbanded or changed for the worse. It's a sad feeling to watch myself grow out of something I love like that. But when I see others fangirling as hard as ever, I think it must be me.

I'm not so sure about the release guys. I read the announcement as 'We were originally planning to release an album', but can't because of Akane's health and the member changes. With the hiatus this will be postponed. I also read this as 'We were originally planning to continue with Shinya as a member, but as of now, can't continue at all' -> therefore, hiatus. I don't expect D.I.D. to be back very soon, then they wouldn't call it an indefinite hiatus. And no band releases an album during their hiatus, without any promotion or tour going along. My Japanese is rusty, but I really wouldn't get my hopes up at all.

You guys who say they can just replace him and go on don't really understand how the Japanese society works. It's "you ride together, you die together". When Meto from Mejibray fell out of that window, it was the other three members crawling on their knees, begging for forgiveness and understanding from both the management and the fans and that was just an 'accident' ( yet self-inflicted, because drunk. So -> shame! ) Think of that one girl (I think from AKB or so?) who got caught sneaking away from a guy's home and shaved off her hair in public and nothing about that is illegal. If lynch. just continued, everyone would consider them highly inappropriate and rude. You have to publicly show remorse and step back. Has nothing to do with being dumb or not finding a bassist that quickly. It's the shaming-inappropriate-behavior mentality of the Japanese. Yepp, us Westerns can't understand. We have fans who get angry if Justin Bieber does NOT perform after being caught with a blunt and I think there were some metal bands where members were convicted with serious crimes like murder and still toured until the last minute. It's really just two different worlds colliding and @cvltic explained it perfectly. In terms of 'public decency' Japan shows no mercy and this is where their audience is located at. I personally have tickets for their lives in March so ... I hope they'll be back on track until then...

I do think he looks different on the first two, his face looks rounder, 'shapier'. Eyes, nose and mouth don't seem so far apart. It's probably also the hairstyle and the make-up adding to the effect but I first saw that pic on twitter and didn't recognize him. Not that bad in the group shot, I mean his individual picture. And I've seen Ryouga live before, I have an idea of what his face CAN look like with PS and where the 'nope' starts. I'm not meaning to spam this thread tho, just wanted to express my first impression. I did like part of the music samples, I definitely prefer the heavy songs over the generic sing-song, buuuut I always liked Ryouga's growling/low-singing the best! Peace out x

I'm well acquainted with the magic that is Photoshop, but I'm not talking about the how, I'm talking about the what. Ryouga (and every other VK guy imo) has been over-shopped on every artist picture so far, but this time they elongated his face, completely erased his jaw and nose and added the magic Lycaon-make-up-filter. Nah, man.

Ryouga looks like the love child of KILLANETH Kai and Lycaon Yuuki. What the hell did they do to his face?

This is so aggravating... But after Mike left, it seemed to go downhill. That left Yoshito as the only composer and I'm sure this can be exhausting. Plus probably a lot of other reasons. Ah, I hope to see him in another band some day...